After ending a season of celebration with a disastrous, confounding indignity, James Harden looked up and saw Gregg Popovich approaching. Surely a coach of such wisdom and experience would be able to help provide some perspective, right?

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But in that moment last May, with Harden dejected in the aftermath of a dismal performance in which the Spurs humiliated and eliminated the Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals, Popovich offered no such guidance.

“Honestly, he said he didn’t know what to say,” Harden said.

And so Harden left the Toyota Center that night reeling, unsure what he had to show for his breakout season or how much of it had been for naught. He had no explanation for why he had played his worst basketball at the worst possible time. Perhaps, like Popovich, he realized no words would help.

This Friday at the Toyota Center, Harden will get his first look at the team that knocked him out of last season’s playoffs. And the Spurs will get their first in-person glimpse at the man who took their best shot and bounced back better than ever.

Last year, Harden was a contender for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. This year, he is the overwhelming favorite.

Last year, the Rockets were a nice feel-good story, a team that pushed the pace and rained 3-pointers on its way to winning a bunch of regular-season games. This year, with Chris Paul joining Harden in the backcourt, they are not a mere curiosity anymore. They are a threat.

And sure, maybe we will not be able to know that for sure until they prove it when the playoffs get under way next spring. But for now, at least one thing is clear.

The Spurs might have embarrassed Harden last May. But they did not finish him.

“We’ve got a whole summer for me to put it behind (me), for us to put it behind us,” Harden said after the Rockets lost to the Spurs 114-75 in Game 6. “Get better, all around as a unit, and come back even better for next year.”

That is in fact what they did. Even with Paul out of the lineup for much of the first month of this season, Harden carried the Rockets to a 14-4 start, and he and the team have been even better since Paul has settled in.

Through the middle of last week, the Rockets had the best record in the Western Conference, while Harden was averaging 31.7 points, 9.7 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game. He led the league in most advanced efficiency measures, including Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) and win shares.

In a poll of 105 NBA media members conducted by the Washington Post, Harden was the clear-cut leader in MVP votes, earning 73 first-place votes, compared to second-place LeBron James’ 24. And according to Basketball Reference’s statistics-based award tracker, Harden was given a 77.6 percent chance to win the award.

After finishing in second place in the MVP race in both 2015 and 2017, this appears to be Harden’s season. As of now, James and Kyrie Irving are his only serious competitors, but he has a significant lead.

Still, becoming MVP will not be enough to erase the painful memories of last postseason, when the Rockets blew the Spurs out in Game 1 of the conference semifinals, then pummeled them again to tie the series at two games apiece heading into a pivotal Game 5.

Spurs guard Tony Parker already was out for the series, having ruptured his quadriceps tendon. Kawhi Leonard was limping on a bum ankle. And Harden had a chance to push the Rockets back to the conference finals against Golden State.

But in overtime in Game 5, he had a potential tying 3-pointer blocked from behind by Manu Ginobili. And then in Game 6, with Leonard not even suited up, Harden was nothing short of atrocious.

He shot 2-for-11 from the field. He committed six turnovers. He looked either fatigued or uninspired, and the Spurs cut him no slack. When he was on the floor, San Antonio outscored Houston by 28 points. In the end, the Rockets lost by 39.

“You’ve got to take it for what it is," Harden said after the game. "Everything falls on my shoulders. I take responsibility for it, for both ends of the floor.”

Now, the responsibility remains his. He has more help than he did in May, but everything will fall on his shoulders again.

There might never be any words of comfort. But Harden continues to hope he will find something better, someday.